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Yes I’ll admit it, I got an Ipad on launch day in the UK, but it wasn’t for me it was on behalf of a friend who wanted one – a 32Gb WiFi model to be exact. I’m sure the salesperson didn’t believe that I wasn’t buying it for myself, but he very patiently went through all the necessary steps so that all my friend had to do was to switch it on and start using it.

Purchased along with the camera connection kit (yes I too wish the iPad had an SD card slot built in but I expect that’s something Apple can market to ooh’s and ahh’s in the future), this particular iPad did sterling service from day one. My friends family were mightily impressed and enjoyed being able to see a huge collection of photos taken only earlier in the day. It continued to impress at my friends workplace and no less than 7 people (yes that’s seven people) placed orders as a result of having spent some time with it. In fact it was becoming quite the little star until last night the screen went haywire.

It’s almost as though the resolution and colour depth changed to the most basic settings, almost like an old Windows PC that you had to boot into Safe Mode with only 16-colour VGA support because of some graphics card driver issue. So while technically the iPad was usable, it was a struggle to make out what was happening on screen. A call to AppleCare got the suggestion of restoring the iPad to its default factory settings, but alas no joy. No amount of resets were able to cure the problem, so I got the call to help (being the ‘techie’ in the family) and this morning we ventured down to the local Apple Retail Store to see what they could do. Of however many hundred (thousand?) they’d sold, this was the first iPad failure they’d encountered and were unable to give any snap diagnosis. Given that they were suffering the usual Saturday morning rush, I agreed to a Genius Bar appointment on Monday evening next week and was assured that they would do something to get this resolved. We were told they couldn’t provide a replacement unit there and then simply because they didn’t have any spare in stock.

So, the little iPad went from hero to zero in a short space of time, but in all fairness no-one, not even Apple, can make hardware with a 0% failure rate, and both AppleCare and the store staff have been really apologetic and have promised to help. Fingers crossed the iPad is back on the crest of it’s own ‘magical’ wave before too long. I’ll keep you updated… In the meantime, here’s a few more shots of what the iPad screen might look like if you’ve eaten some dodgy mushrooms!

UPDATE June 22nd – Well I wish I could give you a cool story about how doing XYZ miraculously fixed the stricken iPad but no. It was as simple as the guy in the Apple Store being very apologetic and swapping it for a brand new boxed 32Gb WiFi iPad.

No not that Steve. Over at TrustedReviews they recently published an article listing ten things they’d change about the iPad. A reasonable list of points, many of which Apple will probably address in due course. What interested me the most however was a comment by someone called Steve that went like this…

“You would have to be insane to buy any first-generation Apple product. The iPad’s inevitable successor will be lighter, thinner, more powerful etc etc etc.”

Has to start somewhere

Let’s think about this for a second. Steve is seriously suggesting that no-one buy any first-generation Apple product. Ok, how does that work? Every single device that Apple makes is initially a first-generation product, in fact pretty much every single piece of technology in the world starts out as a first-generation product. So, following through Steve’s advice – not one single person purchases an iPad when it’s first released. Likewise, every other new product they’ve ever launched remains unsold because people have heeded Steve’s wise words. Result? Apple, unable to sell anything it launched, packed up and went home. There is no MacBook. There is no iMac. There is no iPhone or iPad. There is nothing that is Apple, and certainly no second-generation products.

Are anyone else’s first-generation products any better or is it simply Apple who can’t get it right? Well I don’t think I’ve ever seen a piece of technology that didn’t have shortcomings in it’s early life and that couldn’t be improved upon in subsequent iterations, well except for those products that bombed so badly to start with – like the Sinclair C5 or the Amstrad Email Phone perhaps?

Just because a first-generation product may not be perfect out of the starting gate, doesn’t negate all the good things it does do. I have seen many many positive reviews of the iPad, particularly from open-minded writers who don’t feel the need to bash Apple because it’s fashionable.What’s more, it’s often the experiences and feedback of these ‘insane’ early adopters that drive improvements.